ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses India’s aborted experiment with subnational constitutionalism as well as its continuing engagement with asymmetrical federalism through its composite national Constitution. It explains the context and background that necessitated a combination of symmetrical and asymmetrical treatment of the various states in the national Constitution as well as a solitary experiment with subnational constitutionalism in the exceptional case of the state of Jammu and Kashmir. The chapter discusses the extent of autonomy of the symmetrical as well as asymmetrical states in the Indian national Constitution. It addresses the extent of autonomy enjoyed by the state of Jammu and Kashmir particularly through its subnational constitutional capacity. The chapter discusses the status and content of the Jammu and Kashmir subnational Constitution within the Indian Constitution as a whole and offers an account of its eventual failure and abrogation.
